The Asia-Pacific region has now got seven new ‘green’ aviation routes. The new routes have been introduced under the Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE) efforts. The IATA has certified the daily routes and validated them as ASPIRE-Daily City Pairs. The routes were certified for reducing environmental impact and using the best practice procedures towards this.

Airways New Zealand, the air navigation services provider based in New Zealand, have developed these routes owing to its international commitment to significantly lower the environmental footprint in the region. The new ‘green’ routes are San Francisco-Auckland, Los Angeles-Auckland, Christchurch-Singapore and Auckland-Singapore. The first ASPIRE-Daily City Pair to be introduced was Auckland-San Francisco in February 2011.
 
Ed Sims, CEO of Airways New Zealand, said that Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines, the two airline partners of Airways New Zealand, played quite an important role in developing these new ‘green’ routes. He said that it is a matter of great privilege and pride that the environmental best practices have been applied on these routes taking into account fuel savings, emissions reduction and air traffic control. Regarding Airways New Zealand, he said that being a founding member of ASPIRE the Airways works in close association with airlines and its other partners to significantly reduce the environmental impact of a flight. He said that the IATA has awarded a four-star rating to five of the seven new city pairs.